Sunday, September 16th, 2007- Puerto Varas and more beauty than I can handle

Sunday, September 16th, 2007- Puerto Varas and more beauty than I can handle.

Everyone woke up before 8 am (incredible for a group of 10 college students on vacation1!) and we headed to the bus terminal to catch a bus to Puerto Varas. Puerto Montt is a big port city, but besides the Fish market, there isn’t much to see and we were ready to get away from it. So we headed to the beautiful, tiny, old German town of Puerto Varas that sits on the edge of Lake Llanquiway, (pronounced Yan-Kay-Way) overlooking Vulcan (Volcano) Osorno. It is a huge tourist town in the summer because it is a perfect jumping off point for many of the outdoor adventures surrounding the region, which is a mixture of lakes, waterfalls, national reserves, mountains and 3 huge volcanoes. Heaven on Earth for anyone who likes the outdoors and has some extra cash. Once again, I could try to describe how beautiful it all is, but words can’t do it justice. Unfortunately the pictures don’t either, but it’s a bit closer. So you’ll have to check out the pics.

Back to Saturday: We found a great hostel, called Casa Margouya that a group of exchange students we’d met in Chiloé had recommended to us. It was right downtown Puerto Varas and super close to everything. So we dropped off all our stuff, bought breakfast at the grocery store to share, and headed out to begin our adventure in the great outdoors. We took a bus about 1 hour to Petrohué, the stopping point to Volcán Osorno and Lago Lake Todos Los Santos (All Saints Lake) and Vicente Perez Rozales National Park. Again, words can’t describe, but the most incredible was driving through the only town along the way, Ensenada, which sits in the valley between Volcán Osorno and Volcán Calbuco. Incredible. We made it to Petrohué and after talking with the Park Ranger and getting maps, we headed out on a 2 hour hiking trail towards the volcano. The boys were leading and had a mission of hiking as far up the volcano as possible, hoping to reach snow. This is of course a 12 hour hike and we only had about 4 hours to explore the entire region, so after about 30 minutes of hiking they realized the trail took us along the side of the volcano instead of continuing up towards the snow, and they decided to blaze their own trail. For the next 30 minutes we hiked up the volcano along a path that had been forged by the last eruption about 100 years ago. The ground was covered in soft, fluffy moss that literally felt like walking on marshmallows. It was incredible.
It was raining/misting off and on and there were ominous clouds in the distance and once the boys gave up on reaching snow (which would have taken another 3 hours or so), we sat down on the marshmallow moss and had “lunch”. We had brought bread and cheese and ate our little snack while soaking in the beauty that surrounded us. It was probably one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen in my life.

We hiked back down following our footsteps and easily found where we’d left the trail an hour before. We made it back to the base and found a fisherman/boat guide that offered to take us out on his boat in a 40 minute tour of the lake for $2 a piece. So we piled into his boat and he drove us around the lake. When I say lake, small sea is probably more accurate. It is absolutely huge, surrounded by mountains/volcanoes, and goes 20 km east all the way to the Argentina border. What’s more, the water is absolutely beautiful. A deep, clear blue that you’d wouldn’t believe. When I thought I couldn’t take any more beauty, we got off the boat and started the 3 mile walk to the Saltos de Petrohué (Waterfalls of Petrohué). Matt studied for one year in Chile when he was in High School and had traveled in the south before. So he knew the highlights and kept raving about the Saltos. I didn’t know what to expect but when we got there, I was blown out of the water (pardon the pun!). The Waterfalls were again, one of the most incredible, beautiful things I’ve ever seen. We stayed in the park about 2 hours, hiking the trails and continuing to be amazed at every turn. Around 5:30 they warned us that the last bus back to Puerto Varas was about to leave, so we jumped on and began the hour long journey back. While we drove back, everyone compared pictures on our digital cameras, hoping someone had been able to catch the beauty we had all absorbed throughout the day. Unfortunately my camera battery died on the way back.

When we got back to Puerto Varas, we showered then headed out to dinner. We ate at restaurant that had been recommended in some of the guide books. It was good but over priced and after our ridiculous amounts of bus rides, everyone was running short on cash. So after dinner we decided to do dessert on our own. We went to the grocery store and bought a variety of desserts, including an entire kilo (2.2 POUNDS) of ice cream. We split the kilo between 7 of us and actually finished it! After stuffing ourselves, we decided to have game night. We were basically the only people staying in the hostel, so we hung out in the huge common room and played charades, dinner host (a game from Who’s Line is it Anyway?), and finally a killer game of Spoons. Everyone had a great time and enjoyed the relaxation. We went to bed a little past midnight. It was probably one of the most incredible days I’ve ever had in my life.